21 Degrees
by TohruROX2221
Summary: Join six kids on the run and get into the action! Rated T for language. Also, READ! Damn, just do it!
1. Part One: Dead Men Tell No Tales

**This is NOT, repeat NOT (voice in the distance: not!!) a **_**Maximum Ride**_** story. I got the idea after I read Maximum Ride. Yes, I realize Jake is a boy's name (like, duh, I'm not stupid), but I wanted the main character to be a girl with an interesting name. So Jake was born! YAY!!!!**

**Just read it, okay?**

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CHARACTERS

Jake Sampson - 13 - Me, the heroine, not hero, of the story.

Andrew Thorton - 13 - My best buddy and partner in crime.

Jaime Brown - 13 - A boy who's up to his ears in T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

Tyler King - 10 - A little kid in dangerous need of fun.

Cicily Campbell - 5 - A little girl who can outrun a tiger.

Bailey Campbell - 5 - She can outrun a tiger, too, just not as fast.

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PART ONE: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

Now, don't put this book down - or else. That may sound a little freaky, but that's all that's worth mentioning right now.  
--Jake Sampson


	2. Prologue

PROLOGUE

You may be wondering why you're reading this little green book right in the middle of [insert important thing you were doing here]. And the reason you're reading this book, Mr./Mrs./Ms./Miss [insert your first and last name here], is because you are the chosen one.

No, you're not the messiah, not even the chosen people's messiah. You have been chosen to go on a journey with six children. And these aren't ordinary children like Dorothy Gale from The Wizard Of Oz, or Matilda Wormwood from Matilda, or even Peter Hatcher from Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing. You are chosen to go on this adventure with us.

We are running from the law. It all happened so fast I'm not entirely sure what happened myself. But someone had to have been watching us. There's no other possible explanation. We cover our tracks really good. In fact, I wouldn't know we even existed. That is, if I wasn't in the group. But I'm the leader, so naturally I know we exist. And I'm only the leader because I'm oldest.

This is nonfiction, no matter what the bonehead publisher wrote. Finally, _finally_, I've found a publisher. I've tried three other companies, but they all said, "A story about six runaway homeless screwballs isn't the _best_ story to print, is it?"

Ha, ha.

Not all of the clan is a screwball. Just Jaime, the person responsible for this mess. But that's the way his parents were.

At least we think they were.

We never knew them.

And neither did he.

So, without further ado, here's the story.

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**I know what it says, but you're going to have to wait to read the rest because my mom is making me clean my room. So please leave feedback, regardless if you have a FanFiction account or not. (Hey, regardless...that's a good word to throw in!!) And I already know what's going to happen straight to the end. And don't worry if you like it, because I have a sequel in mind. And by the way, it's not nonfiction - it _is_ fiction. I was just saying that. And I'm treating it like a real book because I want to get _21 Degrees, Book One: The Beginning Of Nothing_ published, like RIGHT NOW. So please, please, _please,_ REVIEW!!! Because then I could throw in some reviews when I send this off to get published to show that I had fans before I was ever famous. And we all know THAT would be AWESOME!! So what are you waiting for?! Press the magic purple button that says 'Review this Story/Chapter'. Thank you. It would mean the world to me. I just want _21 Degress_ published so effing bad.**

**Good day!**


	3. Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

_Run, you idiot, run. They're going to catch you. You're going to die. And—_fly!

My wings unfurled just as I reached the end of the cliff and—here goes nothing—jumped. Cicily jumped, too; then Jaime, Bailey, Andrew, and Tyler. We flew. And that's when the gun went off.

_BANG!!_

A bullet went through my wing. Injured, I started freefalling. Below me were sharp pointed rocks. I gulped. I wouldn't feel anything—I'd just be dead. Even if the rocks weren't there I would die, die from the impact of my fall. Andrew jetted down to save me, but by then it would be too late. Just like that.

Right before I hit the rocks, I gulped. And—then I woke up. Just the same stupid dream as before. "Go, up and at 'em!" I called to my roommates, Jaime and Andrew. Andrew, the morning person, climbed out of bed. Jaime, the night owl, said, "No! Not now!"

"Come on, Jaime," Andrew said. "Early bird gets the worm!"

"I'll be a vegetarian, then!" said Jaime.

Poor kid. Too bad I didn't care.

Andrew and I flipped him out of bed. "What's the big idea?!" he asked.

"It's six A.M.," I pointed out. To you, six is early, but for us early is three. Six is like, _darn! I overslept._ We're always up by at least five. _Always._

"Seriously?! Holy cow!!" he actually threw himself in the closet. I'm not kidding.

"Hey, I'm sleeping here!" said Tyler. Tyler sleeps in the closet of our room.

"Not anymore," I said. "Rise and shine!" I said, smiling, cheerful as ever—that's me, ever the optimistic. "It's six oh three."

"Already? Wow!" He stumbled out of bed—he doesn't sleep in a bed, but "stumbled out of sleeping bag" just didn't fit.

"I'll wake the girls," I volunteered. "Then it's Tyler's turn to make breakfast."

"Oh, great!" Andrew said sarcastically. "Hell's kitchen!" He smiled. "Yum! What's for breakfast? A brick?"

"Andrew," I warned, but he's right—you'd have to have steel teeth, like hammers, to eat Tyler's food. He looked down. Poor guy. I wrapped my arm around him. "I'll help."

His face brightened and he smiled. The kid looks up to me. I left the room to allow the boys some privacy to change, and also, the girls were still sleeping. I started shaking Cicily gently. "Cicily, wake up," I said in my mom voice. None of us have a mom or dad, so, since we're oldest, Andrew and I act like parents. Cicily groaned. Yawning, she asked, "What time is it?"

"Six oh seven."

"And yet it's still early!" she complained. She threw a little throw pillow at Bailey, and said, "Get up, lazy bum!" I frowned.

"_Lazy bum_ isn't the best term, hon," I told Cicily, but she flashed me her big, brown eyes and it was like time froze.

"Aw, Jake!" she said. "Do you _have_ to act like a real mom?" Yes, you heard right. My name is Jake and I'm a girl. Looong story.

"Well, considering you don't have one, yes, I do."

Cicily and Bailey are identical twins. After a while you tell them apart, but other than that, you're clueless. You can tell because Bailey's pretty quiet, and Cicily's, well—_loud._ But they're just so _adorable!_

I smiled. "Up and at 'em!"

**Sorry that was so corny, but I had this story written for a while and decided it was time you guys read it. And I'm so sorry it was so short, too, but all chapters are like that. If you want a long chappie, wait for chapter ****numero**** dos (for you Spanish speakers, wasn't that correct?)!**

**Reviews please!!**

**--Maddie Marie**


	4. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Breakfast that morning was brutal, even _with_ my help. And Andrew was right—breakfast resembled a brick!

"What is this?" Cicily asked. "A rock?"

Tyler frowned. "Nooo…it's a waffle."

"Whatever," Jaime said. "As long as it's food and that's for me!" He started to drown his rock—brick—_waffle!_—in maple syrup. Our house is surrounded by maple trees, so we make our own syrup.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Andrew said once his plate was incredibly sticky. "Take it easy on the syrup, pally." Jaime didn't hear this, or, if he did, he didn't care.

Bailey and I were raiding the fridge, looking for the butter. "Has anyone seen the butter?"

"The what?" Andrew asked.

"The butter," Bailey said, finally speaking up. Then she spelled it in case he still hadn't heard. "B-U-T-T-E-R."

"I can spell," Tyler said. "H-O-B-O spells hillbilly."

Andrew and I groaned. When Tyler spells like that, you can't shut him up. "B-E-E-R spells whiskey," he continued. "And—"

"Shut up!" Jaime yelled. And he did.

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Later I was in the bathroom, doing the girls' hair, when Andrew yelled/whispered, "Jaime Austin Brown! Not again!"

He knocked on the bathroom door but didn't wait and barged in. "That idiot," he yelled/whispered.

I was tying Bailey's hair up in a ponytail. "What?" I said in a normal tone.

"_Shush!!_" Andrew snapped in another yell/whisper.

"What?" I asked in a whisper.

"_COPS!!_" he yelled/whispered, looking frightened. "Three of them! And a dog! Oh, Jaime's going to pay this time…."

We had completely forgotten about the girls. Both of them almost screamed, until Andrew and I lunged and covered their mouths.

"Windows?" I mouthed, going over our checklist entitled "What to do in Case Jaime Brings Home Cops".

"Check," he mouthed back.

"Bags?"

"Check.

"Doors?"

This time he whispered instead of mouthed. "JAIME!!"

"Jaime?" I asked.

"It's his job!! _And they have him!!_"

"Shit!" I heard cops ramming against the door, trying to get it. Cicily was scared, Bailey was scared, Andrew was scared, _I _was scared! None of that, however, compared to how Jaime was.

"Come on!" Andrew said, moving his hands in a "shoo, shoo" motion.

"What with the hands?" Cicily asked as I had released my grip over her mouth. Andrew glared.

"Forget about his hands!" I said. "Let's just worry about saving our butts."

"I'm tired," she complained. "Can we do this later?"

"_Nooo,_" Andrew said in his "snobby girl voice".

I looked at our possible exits. The only one we could use without being seen was the heating vent. I pulled off the grate.

"What are you doing?" Andrew asked.

"Well, do you want to sit here and get killed or crawl through this vent to freedom?"

We got on the toilet and hoisted the girls up. Then Andrew got in and helped me up. He grabbed my hand doing this. There was an awkward silence. But the girls seemed very excited.

"Is this anything like our trip to the zoo?" Cicily asked.

Our "trip to the zoo" wasn't really a trip at all. Once Tyler and I went outside to get some stuff to make syrup from. There was, like, a bunch of animals there. Seriously. There must have been at least 50. We went and got everyone. It was awesome, incredible.

"No," I finally replied.

"Not at all," Andrew said.

Suddenly something hit me: "Where's Tyler?" I knew we would have one less person, but I realized we only had four.

"On the roof," Andrew replied.

"On the what now?"

"He said he wanted to have fun with the cops, so I said he could go on the roof." Yeah, stupid. I know. I'm used to it.

Somehow our vent led to the chimney. You should try climbing _that_ sometime. It gets exhausting. Plus, I think a spider crawled down my _freaking shirt._ We ended on the roof to our little cross dresser of a friend, Tyler.

"Tyler," I hissed. "What are you doing?"

"Having fun!" he said. "Watch." He pulled out his water gun—water _blaster,_ rather—and sprayed a very bald cop on the head. We could see a drenched cop next to him, Jaime in front of them both. He tried not to laugh.

The two cops started to argue with one another.

"You! Bateman!" yelled fat bald cop. "Stop spraying me with that prank walkie talkie!"

"I _ain't_ spraying you with it!" tall thin cop yelled, obviously an Oaky. "I'm standing in _front_ of you'n!"

"Don't play dumb with me!"

"I ain't playin'!" When the fat cop rolled his eyes, the other one thought his answer over again. The two got into a fight. Jaime ran off, and we all jumped after him. We ran quite a distance, and could have sworn we had ditched them. But then we heard a call not far behind us…

"Stop!! _THEIF!!_"

"Crap," I heard Andrew yell. The girls slowed a little and me and Andrew whisked them up so that we were carrying them.

We finally ditched them after running two mules. We were inside a 7-11 store.

"_God,_ Jaime," Andrew said. "_What did you do?!_"

"I robbed a few stores, maybe a bank or two. It's not the end of the frikkin' _world._"

"Well, _yeah,_" I continued. "But it could be the end of _our_ world!"

"Can we get some food?" Bailey asked.

"Yeah, I'm hungry!" Tyler said.

"Ladies first!" Cicily argued.

As they started fighting, people started staring. "Guys, I hate to rain on your parade," I said. "But we've got no money!"

"Oh, contraire, my little blonde friend," Jaime said, pulling out a huge wad of cash, and—I can't believe this—a credit card.

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Sorry for slamming so much down your throats so quickly, but I had to get the action going ahead of time so that you guys wouldn't get too bored too quickly. So I hope you like!!

**--Maddie Marie**


	5. Chapter 3

**It's been FOREVER! Please review :]**

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"Okay, so here's the plan: I walk up to the receptionist, flirt with her a bit, and we get an almost free car! Whatdaya think?"

I slapped Jamie's arm. "I think you're 'I'm the sexiest boy in the world' act ain't gonna cut it when we're trying to get a damn car," I snapped. The kids can take it; Andrew, Jamie, and I all have pottymouths.

"Sure it will," he said, slicking his hair back. "Because. I _am_ the sexiest boy in the world."

This time it was Andrew's turn to slap. "Try again, genius. Even if you _were_ the sexiest boy in the world—and I'm not saying you are," he added, seeing the pleased look on Jamie's face, "how would _that_ get us a car?"

"Well if we're lucky, we'll get a female receptionist. If we get that lucky, I can flirt with her for a while, tell her I'm eighteen, and that I'm short for my age. Then I flirt her up, maybe get her digits—"

"We're trying to get a _car,_ not a _girlfriend,_" I reminded him.

"—and she'll be so into me," he continued, ignoring me, "that she'll just have to sneak us an almost free car! Cause, ya know, she won't just give us a car for free. But I've got the money to pay for it, so we'll be fine! Whatdaya say?"

"I say you're _stupid_ if you think that'll work."

"This is what I think," Andrew said. We all looked at him. "We've somehow've got to get in that parking lot, disable all the security cameras. Luckily there's four of us—"

"_Six!_" the twins snapped.

"But you're the equivalent of one of us," he told them, and he was right—they _were_ only five. But I wasn't sure how that would equal four people. "So, there's four of us, so we'll cover more ground. There can't be _that_ many security cameras so we'll disable them all. But while we're getting the cameras off, we've got to have one person sneak car keys for a car, so that way once we have the cameras off, we can actually get out of there. _Then_ we'll get something to eat," he added, seeing the looks on the younger kids' faces.

"That's a good idea," I admitted.

"It's better than mine," Jamie said. "Well…almost."

"You're _so_ full of it," I said.

"So who'll go inside?" Tyler asked.

"Jamie," Andrew, Cicily, Bailey, and I all said at the same time.

"My time to shine," Jamie said.

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We then had to rethink Andrew's plan. One person would have to stand guard for Jamie while he was working, cause a distraction. We were going to use me. I had originally said that it should be Andrew, considering it was his idea to add a guard, but he said that I do better in emergency situations…what an effing liar.

"You ready?" Jamie asked.

I nodded. "Ready whenever you are."

We walked towards the car dealership. Jamie held the door open. We then started to part, but I stopped him.

"Remember the plan," I told him. "I cause a diversion, then you run after about thirty seconds."

"I got it, I got it," Jamie said.

We ran in. I then ran up to the people who worked there, screaming. The workers looked over at me, confused. I really didn't know what to do when I had their attention, so I did the only thing I could do: I slipped and fell, and started to scream louder. It worked—everyone stopped what they were doing and ran to help me.

"Sweetheart, are you okay?" one woman asked.

"Where does it hurt?" another man asked.

I saw Jamie standing behind the lady's desk. I secretly nodded to him, not letting the others know, and he started to look through the keys, not that it should be hard. I guess he wanted to find a good one.

Now he had one and was running so no one would notice. Now it was the hard part: I had to convince them I was okay, without letting them see the others.

Crap.

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While Jake and Jamie were busy in the DMV, Andrew, Tyler, Cicily, and Bailey were disarming the security cams.

"How do we do this?" Cicily asked.

"I dunno," Andrew said. "Anyway that turns them off."

"Like this?" Bailey asked, yanking the ponytail out of her hair, releasing one of her braids. She took the band in her hand, holding the rubber band between her fingers like a weapon, aiming it towards a camera, and released. The band shot up, hit the camera, and the glass shattered, just a foot in front of them.

Andrew smiled, grabbing Bailey in his arms, saying, "Bailey, I love you. You're a _genius!_" He then plopped her down, grabbing the rubber band. "Alright, Bailey with me, Tyler, you go with Cily." Cicily helped Bailey untie her other braid and took the rubber band with her as she and Tyler set off to find the other cameras.

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Mike Prince was sitting at the security cameras at the DMV when suddenly he saw a little girl staring up at one, untying her hair. He grinned. _Cute little kid,_ he thought.

But then he realized that she was aiming the rubber band like it was a weapon. His brow furrowed, wondering what she was up to. She released, and the picture suddenly turned itself off.

He jumped up. What was she doing?!

On another camera, a different kid, a taller boy, scooped up the little girl in his arms and said something, putting her down. He bent down to pick up something off the ground and told something to the others—the first girl, another girl (Mike assumed it was her twin), and another boy. The second girl helped the first untie her hair, and all four set off, two in one direction and two in the other.

Suddenly, one camera shut off. Mere seconds later—another. And another. And another.

He grabbed his walkie talkie. "Emma...we need backup!"

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**Was that chapter okay? It tells the story from someone's perspective besides Jake's, so...tell me if you like. :] Thank you everyone!!**


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